Empire Coffee & Pastry

It's tucked away, but once you’ve found Empire, you’ll be glad you did. Both of this cafe's Northeast Minneapolis locations are run by a pair of sisters, one of them with a serious pastry education. The sweets toe the line between fine and fun, where oatmeal cookie sandwiches are comfortable nudging up against croissants. The sandwiches are not the kind languishing beneath sweaty plastic, but instead arrive on freshly baked pretzel buns and flatbreads. It's also a cafe, one that serves up coffee drinks the way all Americans have come to expect them. The beans come from local specialty roaster B&W, and there’s also kombucha on tap for when you’re overcaffeinated, which you may come to be while lingering here.